Comparison of Scores for Normal Preschool Children on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test—Revised and the Achievement Scales of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children

Abstract

The newly available Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children is the first comprehensively standardized individual assessment device published for psychoeducational diagnosticians' use since the publication in 1974 of the WISC—R. Extant investigations on K—ABC concurrent validity are restricted to those described in the test's interpretive manual. This study compared 32 normal preschoolers' responses on the K—ABC Achievement subtests with their scores on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test—Revised. The sample scored approximately one standard deviation above the K—ABC standardization sample on both the Peabody and K—ABC Achievement Scale standard scores. Comparability of item analysis across expressive and receptive vocabulary modes signaled superiority for reception. The K—ABC's Achievement subtest, Riddles, emerged as a moderate independent criterion of K—ABC's power in predicting skill in PPVT—R receptive vocabulary. Psychoeducational diagnosticians are cautioned that despite these tests' moderate inter-correlations, they appear to measure essentially different skill elements.